I honestly don't get why otherwise earnest right-leaning people haven't disconnected from the leftist television/film/news hydra. Especially considering that if we did, our enemy would essentially wither and die, in good part.
Bringing up the addiction issue elicits rage, and perhaps this is a clue.
16 January 2013 at 06:08
The Continental Op said...
One way to recall the dark situation we are in: USA = Under Satan's Administration. UK = Underworld Kingdom.
"I honestly don't get why otherwise earnest right-leaning people haven't disconnected from the leftist television/film/news hydra."
I can't believe how different the world is after unplugging. I haven't had a television for a long time, but I still read (past tense) a lot of news (via the internet). After unplugging from that recently, my days have changed significantly.
Instead of reading news I tend to focus, in terms of reading, on the immediate, the useful, the in-depth, and so on.
It feels like I have woken from an unpleasant dream.
It's important, however, to distinguish between knowing that our opponents are demons and demonizing the human beings in the enemy ranks.
It's entirely possible that many of those human footsoldiers (and even some of the captains) are unwitting dupes -- that they are indeed "well-meaning but misguided".
Just as it's possible that some of them have knowingly taken the side of the demons and/or are demon-possessed.
Pray for the former, lament the latter, and never forget that "our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and power, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places."
It feels like I have woken from an unpleasant dream.
This is great - I *literally* said almost this exact thing to my wife today, as we were on a long drive and enjoyed a good conversation as we usually do at such times. I regret to say that I can't remember what the specific topic was, but I do know that I said to her, "Isn't it amazing how easy it is to hold to this [traditional view X] once you stop consuming the mainstream culture?"
@Corky - You are correct - but I don't think we should overdo the idea of good intentions.
Some of these well-meaning people are in the position of ministering to the besiegers of Minas Tirith - their chosen role in the war is to bandage injured orcs and feed hungry trolls. They are but one step away from active participation in evil.
In non-emergency situations, it is reasonable to judge people on how they choose strategically to deploy their kindness.
17 January 2013 at 05:49
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In the coverage of mainstream news, with its unrelenting and aggressive search-and-destroy attitude to marriage, family, Christianity; with its upfront and explicit and covert and strategic promotion of ugliness, moral inversion and dishonesty... I am continually surprised at the attitude adopted by traditionalists and reactionaries who persist and persist in regarding the forces ranged against them as well-meaning but misguided.
*
The fact is that we are at war: we are under attack: we are being harassed, bombed, invaded.
The enemy know what they are doing, they are engaged in genocide: and they know it at many levels from the implicit and taken-for-granted to the battle plan.
To survive (let alone win) real Christians simply must recognize the reality of what is euphemistically caused the Culture Wars - but which is actually Spiritual Warfare.
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This is the battle between Good and Evil, God and Satan - it is not a battle between good and evil people, but between good and evil spiritual forces with people variously aligned and nobody wholly on one side.
At times the fight between good and evil has resembled a melee, collections of more-or-less-good individuals on various sides, mixed together, hacking and brawling.
Yet in these modern times, the sides in the battle are becoming sorted more clearly. The evil alliance is becoming larger and larger, more and more coherent, and it should be becoming more and more obvious.
*
The nature of this modern spiritual war is the assembling of such a vast coalition of evil that it seems only scattered individuals stand outside it. In our world there is no Gondor or Lothlorien, nor even an Edoras or Lonely Mountain.
The odds in the Culture Wars are so unbalanced that they become almost incomprehensible - in order to guard against despair, those on the side of good are tempted to explain-away the evil alliance, to think to themselves that maybe they are not so evil after all... to believe that good can eventuate from this evil by some natural process of reaction: a pendulum swing.
The odds in the Culture Wars are indeed so adverse that we are tempted to deny that there is a war - and therefore we guarantee that we not only lose the war (which may be what happens either way), but lose our souls in the process.
*
What we ought to be doing is to acknowledge the War, acknowledge the catastrophic prospects, but continue to fight and remain hopeful of victory by divine assistance of some unforeseen kind.
Acknowledgement of our own essential helplessness could, itself, be the greatest boon of our modern situation.
But it can only happen if we acknowledge our situation - if we recognize the enemy as the enemy.
*
We need to recognize that keeping up a pretense that the enemy is only a misinformed-friend, is not an act of kindness nor goodness: it is in fact dishonest, a denial of reality: it is indeed sinful, a snare of the enemy.
The failure to recognize the reality and seriousness of the Culture Wars, the failure to recognize that hidden behind Cultural War is the perennial Spiritual War in its modern form, is not therefore merely to lose the war by failing to defend - but to align with the wrong side: actually ourselves tojoin the forces of evil.
"Evil at work: people Just Don't Get-It"
6 Comments -
I honestly don't get why otherwise earnest right-leaning people haven't disconnected from the leftist television/film/news hydra. Especially considering that if we did, our enemy would essentially wither and die, in good part.
Bringing up the addiction issue elicits rage, and perhaps this is a clue.
16 January 2013 at 06:08
One way to recall the dark situation we are in:
USA = Under Satan's Administration.
UK = Underworld Kingdom.
Carry on.
16 January 2013 at 06:33
"I honestly don't get why otherwise earnest right-leaning people haven't disconnected from the leftist television/film/news hydra."
I can't believe how different the world is after unplugging. I haven't had a television for a long time, but I still read (past tense) a lot of news (via the internet). After unplugging from that recently, my days have changed significantly.
Instead of reading news I tend to focus, in terms of reading, on the immediate, the useful, the in-depth, and so on.
It feels like I have woken from an unpleasant dream.
16 January 2013 at 15:23
It's important, however, to distinguish between knowing that our opponents are demons and demonizing the human beings in the enemy ranks.
It's entirely possible that many of those human footsoldiers (and even some of the captains) are unwitting dupes -- that they are indeed "well-meaning but misguided".
Just as it's possible that some of them have knowingly taken the side of the demons and/or are demon-possessed.
Pray for the former, lament the latter, and never forget that "our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and power, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places."
16 January 2013 at 19:47
It feels like I have woken from an unpleasant dream.
This is great - I *literally* said almost this exact thing to my wife today, as we were on a long drive and enjoyed a good conversation as we usually do at such times. I regret to say that I can't remember what the specific topic was, but I do know that I said to her, "Isn't it amazing how easy it is to hold to this [traditional view X] once you stop consuming the mainstream culture?"
17 January 2013 at 00:21
@Corky - You are correct - but I don't think we should overdo the idea of good intentions.
Some of these well-meaning people are in the position of ministering to the besiegers of Minas Tirith - their chosen role in the war is to bandage injured orcs and feed hungry trolls. They are but one step away from active participation in evil.
In non-emergency situations, it is reasonable to judge people on how they choose strategically to deploy their kindness.
17 January 2013 at 05:49